Dan-Ball Wiki:Manual of Categorization
This Manual of Categorization outlines a standard of clean, consistent categorization for articles on this wiki. The rules described here are guidelines and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating categories or categorizing their own articles. These guidelines follow mainly the guidelines at Wikipedia: Categorization and Wikipedia: FAQ/Categorization with some exceptions. When to use categories Use of categories for articles Every article on this wiki should belong to at least one category. An article belonging to more than one category is possible, for example if a topic has a meaning for more than one game. Another example is the case when an article is a topic article for a category (see respecting section below). A category should usually contain at least 7 articles, but exceptions are always possible. Use of categories for disambiguations A disambiguation page should only belong to Category: Disambiguations. The reason for this is, if the user is visiting a typical category, he would only get distracted by the disambiguation pages. It might happen that he gets fooled and visits the disambiguation page instead of the main article he wanted. Use of categories for redirects If the redirection page represents a synonym for the main article the redirection should not belong to a category. An example for this is the redirection Flammable which does not have a category, and the article Flammability which belongs to Category: Powder Game physics. However if the redirection represents an own article topic which is just covered on the target page of the redirection, it should be categorized in the same way as an article. This is especially true if the content of the redirection is covered completely in a main article. An example for this is the redirection Green Stone which leads to the article Stone (Stick Ranger)#Green Stone, where the Green Stone is explained in detail with other stones. Therefore both articles can and should be part of the Category: Stick Ranger items. Use of categories for images An image should be categorized depending on the content of the image. Images usually have a corresponding article (eg. File:Green Smiley Wheel.png and Green Smiley Wheel), in which case the image should go into the same category as the article. Sometimes images can belong to more than one category because they are related to several different aspects. An example is the image Sword Length (30-35-40).png, which shows the effect of Long Sword's Card for different swords and therefore is in Category:Stick Ranger items and Category:Stick Ranger weapons. Currently, Category:Images is not used because grouping of all images is already provided by the namespace "File". How to use subcategories Every category on this Wiki should belong to at least one category. The main category for all categories which are related to the content of the Wiki is Category: Content. Categories which are related to administrative issues or the organisation of the wiki belong to Category: Organisation or one of its subcategories. An article should, as far as possible, belong to a subcategory. For instance, most of the articles in Stick Ranger belong in one of the seven categories within Category:Stick Ranger. Conversely, one should strive to avoid placing articles and files within main categories, unless they are of great importance. An article should never belong to both the subcategory and category at the same time - it should always be placed in the subcategory only. However, there are some exceptions for this rule. If an article is the topic article for a category, it should be placed in that category. But the fact that the article is a member of this subcategory is not a reason for it to be excluded from the parent category. Sometimes the name of the subcategory includes the name of the main category, like the subcategory Category: Stick Ranger enemies and the category Category: Stick Ranger. For those cases the sort order within the main category should be adjusted to make sure the subcategory is listed under "E'" like "''Enemies" and not under "'''S" like "Stick". To do this you can either use a default sort at the subcategory, which applies to all categories: Category:Stick Ranger Or you can set the sort key manually like this: Enemies Category tree or category graph? The subcategories do not necessarily have to form a tree. They more likely form a ordered graph structure, because sometimes a subcategory or an article can be part of more than one category. But you should avoid creating circles, if possible. You can browse the following category graph, to get an overview: When an article is a topic article for a category Sometimes there is a direct relationship between an article and a category, for example the article Stick Ranger and the category Category: Stick Ranger. It is highly recommended to use the template at the beginning of the category page to place a reference to the article. The category should be categorized as usual, under the parent category. While the article should be part of its corresponding category like any other article, it has priority over other articles because it describes the category (as opposed to being an element of the category). It should be categorized as such: ARTICLENAME The space between the |''' and the article name is important because this ensures that the article is listed at the beginning of the category instead of being mixed with other elements of the category. It is also recommended to include a "See also" section at the end of the article with a link to the category. To do this you can use: ''' See also * Category: CATEGORYNAME The :' in front of the "'Category" ensures that this is only a link to the category, rather than a command to categorize the article into said category. How to write a category page Before creating a new category, be very sure that it is neccessary to create the new category. When there exist a number of articles that don't fit into any other category, but have a common point, consider making a new category. When making a new category, # Name the category. Do ensure that the category is appropriately named: #* Capitalise the first letter of the title, as well as the first letter of all proper nouns. Everything else should be in small letters. (eg. Category:Stick Ranger items.) #* Pluralisation. Generally, category titles should be pluralised since there are multiple elements within the category (eg. [[:Category:Stick Ranger items|Category:Stick Ranger item's']].) # Add at the very front of the category page, if neccessary. See Template:Catmore for details on usage. # Include an About section that very briefly describes the category in question. Details should be contained to the primary article. # Include a "See Also" section, if neccessary. # Categorize the category at the very end. All categories should belong to at least one category, all the way down to the root category, Category:Browse. See also * Dan-Ball Wiki: Manual of Style External links * Wikia Help: Category * Wikipedia: Categorization * Wikipedia: FAQ/Categorization * Wikipedia: Categorization and subcategories